Kathryn A. Frazier
Your Story. Your voice. the best it can be.
Hanging my head, I present The Excuse.
Good New Year, Writer Peeps!
The writing mantra, “It doesn’t have to be good; it has to be done,” has served me well in my years of corporate writing, periodical writing, ghostwriting, and copy editing. Because you will never sell what you never finish. Fact.
So, when I talk with writers, I ask about their progress, even (especially) when I suspect they’ve made none. I roll my eyes when they claim they’re too busy to write. I stare down pre-published hopefuls and demand, “You make the time!” In short, I’ve been kind of a bully–but I hope in a benevolent, head-matron kind of way.
Now it’s my turn to hang my head and mumble, “I’ve been dealing with a lot of stuff.” Since March 2016, my family literally has not gone one month without a major crisis or event. I keep thinking I can get back to normalcy, and then something else happens. Not the least of these problems is my recurring iritis, which comes with a treatment that causes glaucoma, and threatens to end my editing career altogether.
If you don’t know what iritis is, imagine gouging out the irises of your eyes, little by little, with a pickle fork, then shoving hot metal skewers through sightless sockets into your brain, over and over and over again. But iritis hurts quite a bit more. It’s good I’m not a spy. During a bout of iritis, I would–without hesitation–blab state secrets for a shot of morphine.
Anyway, that’s why I haven’t been writing blog posts. Sometimes, life really does get in the way of writing. Apparently.
There it is–my excuse. I hope that you’ll cut me some slack, and I guess I can cut you some slack in return. But don’t you dare let me off the hook. I’m no sissy pants. It’s not impossible to write a blog while wearing sunglasses, with the computer screen magnified to 300%.
And I’m not letting you off the hook either. You need to get your book finished. No one else can write your story. If you don’t write it, you will leave the world with an empty place that can never be filled. And that would be sad. Dictate into your phone’s recorder as you walk. Carry a notebook and pen and scribble notes while you wait in lines. Find the time! But only, you know, if life isn’t really getting in the way too much. Take care of your family and your health first.
“Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.” –Stephen King
A LITTLE HELP?
While I hopefully have you all softened up with my tearless sob story, I’d like to ask a favor. I’m steadily redesigning this site to merge with other sites I had. I want this to be a central hub. Right now, some catagories and links are still a little wonky, and I’m on that. But I need someone with normal eyes to answer my question. Is the font on this site too small? How is it coming through on your device? If you could let me know, that would be a big help. In fact, if anything is coming through “wrong,” I’d like to know, so I can fix it.
Hugs,
Kathy
P.S. I didn’t forget Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. But I don’t have anything prepared to honor the day properly. I recommend you check out MLK Day: Meet 9 lesser known women behind the civil rights era’s biggest achievements by Alison Durkee at .Mic. I found it informative, fresh, and an encouragement to me, as a woman, that women have always and will always play an integral role in social change.
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Kathryn A. Frazier 